Stannis' Real Fate, According To A New Game Of Thrones Book

Game of Thrones is such a popular program at this point that it has spawned off into merchandise, including t-shirts, plush toys, coloring books and now Game of Thrones: The Noble Houses of Westeros. The new Random House title looks into the events on the HBO drama through last spring’s fifth season, and seemingly clears up a plot point of two. One of the big ideas that we didn’t officially get to see onscreen but is cleared up in The Noble Houses of Westeros is the fate of Stannis Baratheon, who seemingly died at the hands of Brienne of Tarth at the end of Season 5. Because we didn’t Brienne actually take out Stannis, there was some speculation that the character may not have actually perished. Unfortunately, that’s not what the book says:

Knowing that Stannis was responsible for the death of his brother Renly, whom she served and loved, Brienne killed Stannis.

If you caught the Season 5 finale of Game of Thrones (obviously, spoilers from last season follow), you should already know that Stannis was suffering from a downward spiral just before Brienne located him. The proud leader had made some poor decisions leading to the murder of his daughter and the suicide of his wife and much of his soldiers had deserted him in his time of need. He decided to take on the Boltons even with less forces to back him up, and he would probably have met his downfall either way. Instead, we left him injured in the woods with Brienne closing in. The news comes shortly after GOT director David Nutter also said the character was dead.

Interestingly, Stannis fate on HBO’s Game of Thrones will not be similar to his fate in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise by George R.R. Martin. A few months ago, the popular novelist revealed that Stannis is very much alive in the books and since the books have already covered the raid against the Boltons, it looks like Stannis’ literary counterpart will have a much different fate.

So, there you have it. According to THR, the book also confirms the deaths of Myrcella and Jon Snow, although I don’t think anyone believed Myrcella would be coming back in Season 6. As far as the Jon Snow death goes, I think most of us believed that the stabbings were fatal for the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. However, just because someone gets stabbed to death on Game of Thrones doesn’t mean they may not be coming back. And as set information and even teasers from HBO have seemingly confirmed, we’ll be seeing more of Jon Snow—or at least Kit Harington—in Season 6.

Game of Thrones is expected to return to the schedule in April of 2016. For now, you can check out what we know about the upcoming episodes or see what else is coming up at midseason.